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2014 Professional Development Program Call for Pre-Proposals Now Being Accepted

GRIFFIN, Georgia – The Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) Call for Pre-proposals for the Professional Development Program (PDP) Grants is now open.

The Professional Development Program is a “train the trainer” program, providing funding to agricultural professionals to train Cooperative Extension agents, USDA field personnel, and other ag professionals and educators in areas of sustainable agriculture production practices. Training activities may include seminars, workshops, farm tours, on-farm demonstrations, or the marketing and distributing of training materials. Activities may take place in a single state, multiple states, or throughout the entire Southern region.

The deadline for the Call for Pre-proposals is 11:59 p.m. EST on June 2, 2014. Download the Call for Proposal and carefully read the application instructions. All of the guidelines, program goals, review criteria, and the submission process to apply for a Southern SARE Professional Development Program Grant will be found within the Call for Proposal. Failure to follow the submission guidelines may result in the rejection of your proposal.

To be considered for funding a project must meet the following two criteria:

A project’s central purpose must be to provide or enable training. Research projects and farmer-outreach or education projects do not qualify for this funding.

There’s not set amount of grant funding, but priority will be given to those less than $80,000, in order to fund a broad portfolio of projects. For more information on sustainable agriculture, visit the Southern SARE website.

Call for Pre-proposals are released each March. Selected pre-proposal candidates are invited to submit a full proposal in August with full proposals due in November.

This website is maintained by Southern region SARE and supported by SARE Outreach for the SARE program, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA is an equal opportunity employer. The Southern region SARE program is hosted by University of Georgia, Fort Valley State University and the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Oklahoma.

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